About Me!

I first started skating as a child, on a pair of those metal quad skates. These had an adjustable frame and leather straps so you’d simply strap them on over your trainers. I got a lot of pleasure out of these!

What you can’t easily tell from this photo is that this was my first time on roller skates, and I didn’t understand about bending your knees and ankles. I’m thus bending forwards to not fall over.

I skated on these roller skates for quite a few years, although never very seriously, as well as the occasional ice skating session.

It was only in 2000 when I bought my first pair of inline skates as an adult, thanks to a skating colleague called Mike. He took some other colleagues and I down to Club Blue Room at their old location, where I soon bought myself a pair of skates. From here I spent a lot of time in Hyde Park skating around, falling over a lot, and generally trying way too hard to improve more quickly than I should have.

I took my ICP Level 1 instructor exam in 2002 and passed with the highest score to date, IIRC. I really love teaching, and get a lot of pleasure from watching other people progress their skating and improve.

Since then I’ve taught thousands of students, and passed my ICP level 2 instructor course. I’ve also done a whole bunch of speed skating related work, and speed skating myself. I worked for the ever awesome Eddy Matzger for a few years, and can highly recommend his lessons if you want to take a skating vacation in either Virginia or Thailand. I’ve been lucky enough to get some coaching on my skating and my coaching from both Bill Begg and Sebastian Baumgartner as well, and all three of these have inspired me considerably.

Website, logo, and photos

Mark Caswell-Daniels

Mark created the original LondonSkaters logo and design, and came up with a design classic so many years ago. It’s now seen throughout the skating community, and has been recognised as far afield as Korea.

Jennie Routley of Creative Badger

http://creativebadger.co.uk/
Jennie did the WordPress design layout and configuration, and came up with an absolute cracker that looks great and is super easy for me to work with and administer.